001Heat. Heat. Heat. I shot you. I I is really I mean the stories we heard I mean anyway so they're filming [Music] And then and then I just like oh my god I've ever seen Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. If you ask questions like you So then um one night we walked by and I was like the kids were like so we went up. [Music] Oh, I'm getting swinging. Oh my gosh. I mean, look at that. That was his first day. That is unbelievable. Yeah. No, we were there in December and I don't know if I told you this rain we just umbrella I I mean, it really wasn't bad. It wasn't working hard. So, Brian, Brian, I I forgot my tissue. Really? That's fair. So, I don't think I think they just decided to All
002right, we're almost ready to start. We just need a superintendent. Can she hear me? All right, she's back there hanging up with the kids. All right. Well, I know the students are excited about getting started, so let's uh see what we can do. Are you thinking it's going to be superh big? Well, I'm going to go ahead and call us to order. It is 6:00 on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025. This is a duly followed regular meeting of the Alamo Heights Board of Trustees. Thanks everybody for being here. I'd like to welcome anyone listening to our live streaming broadcast if anyone would like a recording of this meeting. We'll be posting a link on the website within 24 hours after the end of this meeting. In addition, we'll also post the materials being presented and so
003you can review all of that as well. Everything's under the schoolboard icon at our ahisd.net website. So, if anyone in the audience wants to address the board tonight, we welcome your input during our citizard item on the agenda. You should have seen the forms when you walked in able to sign in and we'll get there in just a minute. So, first we're going to move to item 2A. So, we uh you know every three years TR that's the trustee terms and uh so Brian Hamilton is retiring from the board after 6 years of honorable service. Uh we have presented to you presented to you our uh resolution. Um and and Brian is very um he doesn't want us to make a big deal about him. So, we're not going to make a big deal about
004you other than to say thank you for serving. Yes, sir. You've done an incredible job. You've been principled when the whole world is going nuts. You've stayed the course. Your fingerprints are all over the school foundation, all over this board. Uh really appreciate your service and I absolutely know it's only with Hillary's help could you have done any of this. So, thank you Brian for what you've done. U Okay, we are going to move on to oaths of office. Okay. Uh, we have three people that are getting sworn in, I believe. So, Karen, if you want to come up here, you can take Brian's chair. Okay. So, Maria is going to ministering. if you would please stand. Do you need the microphone? Do you think you fine? Okay, then I'm going to leave it with
005you. Okay. Well, we're going to step over here. His last moments as president. Have a moment of prayer. You can raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, David, I, David, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the duties that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of the school board of trustees of the office of the school board of trustees or the Elmo Heights Independent School District of the Elmo Heights Independent School District of the state of Texas of the state of Texas and his will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution preserve protect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of this and of this state. Sorry. And laws of
006the United States and of this state. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Okay. Having administered the oath for our new members, um we are moving on to item 2 C. consideration of new board officers. I know we know who they all are, but I thought I had something out. We have a board just Mhm. Okay, there we go. So, we're just going to do the officers right there that that part with the titles. So, for President Clay Page, for Vice President Carrie Hildebrand, for Secretary Ty Edwards, assistant secretary Lauren Mclofflin. Do I have a motion to approve the new officers? So moved. Thank you, Ty. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Lauren. All in favor, please say I. Any opposed? The motion carries. So now, Clay, you're taking the wheel,
007buddy. And I am moving over. So, come on over. Nice. Good to see you. Yeah, I'd move that name. Yeah, I'd move that name plate. Yeah, we don't want anybody can see us. taking all my stuff. Hey, Dana. This is going to be all right. Where are we? Committee assignments. So, no, we already did that. We did. This is going to be an interesting year. You just explain this was in the board that is your committee assignment. All right. I hadn't been here as long as David so I'm new at this. Uh but don't we have citizens to be heard? Not until after recognitions. So just explain the committees and we'll move on. So the committee tell committee assignments and you don't have to go through everything. You can just ask Rick there's any discussion.
008Yeah. We we gave y'all the committee assignments. Does anyone have any discussions or objections? I move we approve those as presented. Second. All right. So, all in favor? All in favor? I. And then you can move into All right. Now, we're going to go to section two, delegations and recognitions. I think half our high school is here. Um, so because we have amazing athletes, which I'm very proud of. And uh at this time I'll turn it over to Frank Al Farro. Dr. Thank you, Mr. Paige. Yes, sir. Thank you. Well, I want to thank you and and everyone else for being here tonight. We have lots of recognitions to celebrate. As Mr. Paige said, I do want to start off by asking everybody uh so that we can really recognize and celebrate each person. If
009you could please stay to the last one. I know it's a lot, but and and I'll let you know when it's over, when the last recognition is, but if you can please stay. Uh we've got plenty of places to sit uh and help us all. Let's celebrate and enjoy. Our first recognition tonight is the spotlight on excellence for Alcohol Heights High School teacher Matthew Moreno. Come on down. Get some pictures here now. Uh, every month we shine the spotlight of on excellence on somebody who already works quietly behind the scenes to fuel our tradition of excellence. Now, Matt has a distinction of both uh serving behind the scenes and in front of the scenes as he conducts our symphonic and jazz bands. He's one of the color guard and winter guard directors. He teaches beginner
010band a variety of musical instruments at the junior school to sixth graders and uh he manages social media accounts. And one of the things that distinguishes him that people recognized him for nominated for this was that in addition to doing all those great things for kids, he also does a lot for his uh uh the co-workers. and he he uh so one of the things he did was he stepped up and this is kind of wonky but there's a new thing called teacher incentive a lot and we had to create all of these exams for kids and Matt jumped in and uh he worked hard to create those new exams behind the scenes now one thing I also want to brag on him we all know Dr. Dr. Zer talk about the budget cuts and
011that we've been going through last year and this year. And so one of the things that he had to do because of one of those budget cuts is to come down this year and teach that sixth grade band. And he did it like a champ. And I was super excited at our celebration of learning to see his sixth graders out there presenting on uh their favorite musicians in the tuba, the euphonium, the French horn. And I talked to each one of those sixth grade kids and they're so excited about playing their instrument. And a lot of that is testament to Matt. So Matt, congratulations. Thank you. I just want to take a quick moment to uh thank all the people that support me daily. Uh my friends, my family, my partner, uh and my co-workers,
012the administration at Alice High School. Uh, I could I do all of these things, but I could not do any of them without them. Um, and I really really appreciate all of them and it's all for the students, right? So, in just a second, we're going to bring out some of the students that I get to work with uh and just cheer a little extra hard for them because it's all for them. Thank you. Our next recognition is known as powering the profile where every other month or so we create a video highlighting an educator that exemplifies one part of our profile of learn. Now you may know by now that our profile of learn articulates the skills, habits of mind and attributes that we're trying to instill in all of our students here at
013Alamo Heights. So tonight I'd like to call up from Howard Elementary or from our early childhood J. I don't think she's seen it yet. Click there and get us the picture in which you'll see the banners at the bottom. Uh what part of the profile we're highlighting and the different bullets of the things and uh you guys queued up? Let's sit back and [Music] enjoy. Student [Music] development. Sorry. Can you pause it? I think we have We can fix the volume here and start it over. Brian thinks he knows what the answer is. Sorry about that. Technical difficulties. We're working on it behind the scenes. All right, try it now. development. [Music] You're awesome. You're awesome. You're awesome. Everything you do skills and we're not playing sports. We're working on skills. Jogging is a skill.
014Scooting is a skill. Jump roping is a skill. We are so little. We try to stay away from the word exercise. Today we're jumping and we're going to practice this skill. Hey [Music] team, keep going. Who can do that? Slow motion. All right. Control. [Music] That's crazy. A lot of [Music] There we go. es and I know that every kid I love when they tell me about those emotions then I can play all Good morning. So that video is posted on our YouTube channel. We'll be pushing on social media. So there you can listen to the audio. Anything else I want to add? Um just just a little conversation that I had before this whole thing. I'm so grateful that I get to be here every day. I used to be a high school softball
015coach and that was life. I played softball growing up. I went to college playing and softball was wonderful, big part of my life. Then I had my little human. Uh she's a mini meal at an hour now. And just life changed, right? And now this this passion that I had for softball is now into our littles. Your littles. Well, they're not little anymore, but the new likes and I'm just grateful every single day for my team. So for this team and I'm going to be here as long as the new Howard building stands. All right, let's get some students down here. The next recognition is state color bar. Oh yeah. Now this is the winter guard placed seventh in the Scholastic Regional A class at the TECA state competition. Let's first get to meet who's
016here. Give us your first name and your last name and we'll end down there with Moreno. Will you tell us a little bit about this competition? I'm Kade Bartlett. I'm Alana Martinez. I'm Maddie McGee. I'm Mariah Neon. I'm Justice Mrono. I'm Roxanne Harris. I'm Reese Fagan. I'm Charlotte Miller. I'm Kiana Robato. I'm Leslie Naser. I'm Isabella Vianea. I'm Kiraas. I'm Liviana. I'm lieutenant. I'm Gabriel Abu Janes. I'm the captain. And I'm Moreno and I'm one of their directors. Uh, a little bit about this team. Uh, this team has grown so much in the four years since we've started. We started uh with three in the classroom and this year we have 18. And that is because of all of the support again from parents and the admin and uh the board and um co-workers and
017all of those things. Uh these students work hard from about 4 weeks before school starts is when our season starts when we start training uh go through our summer band all of marching season and then when you think it's done we start with a whole new thing which is winter guard which is basically what we do on the football field inside of Joe. Um I am eternally grateful for these students for putting in their hard work. Um we have had the privilege of growing this year not only in numbers but also in our class. Uh one of our biggest highlights is we were promoted to a new class and we are excited to compete at a very new level. Uh so thank you all for your support. Thank you. Congratulations that way. Yes. Very good.
018Thank you so much. Uh next as they exit, we have some more fine arts folks to recognize. Uh state qualifiers in band, orchestra, and piano, state solo and ensemble. Come on in. All right. Uh, this is a really big deal. It's super I think it's super hard to get to this level. Maybe you guys don't think it's that hard. And so, but we'll we'll find out from their sponsors um on what it takes to get to this level. We'll start here. This is of course Troy Chester. He's one of the instructors. So, I'm not going to let him introduce himself, but I want to give the mic to the student. Tell us your first name and your last name. We'll pass away all the way down the end. I'm Kiraos. I'm Elanor Dell. I'm Julie
019Mendoza. I'm Andrea Santiago. I'm Andrew Krauss. I'm Lauren Nash. I'm Maya Corey. I'm Elena Kins. I'm Chloe Gole. I'm Cameron Pel. I'm Eli. I'm Ben Cloffenstein. I'm Lexi Bllye. I'm Jack Nagel, assistant director of orchestras. David Stevens, one of the band directors. Hi again. Director. I'm Linda Wilson, uh, choir and piano. Uh, and I just want to say a couple of words about what these students have accomplished. So, uh, not only do they have to play the very hardest, uh, most difficult classification of UIL solos, um, class one, they also have to play them by memory. So, they have to memorize all that music. And most of this is accomplished on their own time with extra practice outside of class. So huge accompl accomplishment for all of these students. We're very proud of them. Congratulations.
020All right. Now we have another fine arts recognition. Come on down. This is a UIL state theatrical design qualifier. Selene Valadez. Come on in, Selene. Let's clap for her first. Selene qualified for the UL state theatrical design contest for her set design for Axel Ax. I practiced this backstage and now I'm going to let you tell me what the musical was and tell us a little bit about your set design. Um yes, thank you. The musical was basically about um promoting the importance of saving the earth. Uh it was called Axelors. Uh, I've worked on it throughout the fall semester. I worked very hard and I had a lot of fun putting my creativity and imagination into this. I'm excited to see the results tomorrow. Right. Uh, Selena is from our advanced tech theater. Oh,
021I'm Erica Kellogg, theater teacher. Um, Selena is in our advanced tech theater class. And I would argue this group definitely had probably the hardest job from the past because unlike past contests, this play has never been produced or done professionally. So they really have no reference or example to look to. So all of it came out of her writing. She did just such a great job. We can't wait to see the results this weekend. Well, congratulations. This is a qualifier for the Texas Visual Arts Scholastic event. Na, come on down. I need a rehearsal view of the back. Do you feel comfortable telling us what you're being recognized for, what your qualification was? Um, I got qualified for a high ranking medalist um at base nationals in a state. Um, and I'm just honored to
022have this opportunity to create such beautiful works of art. Great. Add that to your tell us who you are. Tell us about I'm Casey Ballas. Uh, now the last time I was here, I was talking about an artist that qualified in a medal at state, Nathaniel Garza. His work now is selling for $20,000 a piece. Wow. Oh my gosh. And that was not that long ago. So, and I stood here and I said, "You need to buy his work before you can't afford it anymore." Um, Na is a very talented young lady. She's a sophomore, so she has a little bit more time to grow and develop and grow, but she has that kind of talent uh that you you see as a teacher and you're like, "Wow, you know, she's going to she's going
023to do something special." So, I'm really proud of her uh for getting out there, putting herself out there, learning time management, you know, and stepping up today. She told me, "Well, I'm going to be here the next two years, so like that." So, really happy to see her. uh next year and she's going to come and see you and she'll be showing you work. again. If uh she puts stuff out there, you better get it while you can. Congratulations. Get your art. Now, next we've got the yearbook team on that together. Are you guys doing separate? We got a yearbook team on that end. And somewhere over here it morphs into a footprint with practice. We got some time. Okay. All right. So, we're recognizing the yearbook, the UIL award distinguished merit and the UIL
024star award. The yearbook received the award of distinguished merit for the 17th straight year. This is the state's highest honor and the gold medal in publishing. The hoof print which is kind of those down at the end. The hoof print received UIL's award of achievement which is the second highest honor and the silver medal in publishing. Let's clap first before we get to one thing is your grades plus your first name, your last name and what grade you're in. then pass to Mike Anthony. Hi, I'm Bennett Hughes. I'm a senior and I was co-editor and chief. Um, my name is Emily Rodriguez. I'm a senior and I was also co-editor. I'm Emma Terry. I'm a senior and I'm also co-editor chief. I'm Caroline Crow. I'm a senior and I was the student life editor. I'm
025Hayden White. I'm a junior and I'm on student life staff. I'm Adelide Cooper. I'm a junior and I was also on student life staff. I'm Margaret Rainey and I'm a junior and I was on the organization staff. I'm Alex Shiba. I'm a sophomore and I was on the academic staff. I'm Tessa Bordalon and I'm a junior and I was on students life. I'm Miss Brown. I'm a junior and I was on the sports staff. I'm Pablo Lopez. I'm a junior and I was also on sports staff. I'm Jose. I'm a junior and I was on the student life staff. I'm Cole Roose. I'm a senior and I was a sports editor. I'm Mley Royon. I'm a junior and I'm on the Hoof Prince News staff. I'm Jocelyn Buzzner. I'm a junior and I'm co-editor and
026chief. I'm Maddie Wallace. I'm a senior and I'm co-editor and chief. I'm Bennett Jensen and I am a senior and I'm on sports staff. I'm Mason Gutierrez. I'm also a senior and I'm a co-editor and chief. I'm Ber. I'm a senior and I was on the sports staff. I'm Thomas. I'm a senior and I was on new stuff. I'm over Duffin. I'm a senior and I was on sports staff. Great. Did you guys hand the mic to Miss Kane? Miss Kane, I know you pour tons into these kids. Tell us a little about both these teams. What? Tell us a little bit about both of these teams. Whatever you want to say. So, yearbook, this was a really fun group. Girls, boys. Normally yearbook is like mostly girls and hookress boys which can be kind
027of interesting but this year we had a really good mix. Lots of laughs. If you have not been to the portables interesting um I had the biggest room on class on campus last year. We went to this little bitty one. We bump into each other but we just make it work. Play music, have fun, lots of laughs. These guys have worked so hard that as of today, we have two pages of the 2025 yearbook left. Um, which is fantastic. And they also, not only did they keep the streak going of the UIL award of distinguished merit, but they got the first ever school nomination for a star award, which is at the state level, which is where they put all the distinguished merits together and determine who gets star nominations. So that's the first time.
028for their history making which is awesome and I love it. And then what a fun group they I just like stood back and watched it. They argued about sports on a daily basis. Um they had so much fun. They worked hard. They met every deadline. Didn't miss a single one. We just finished uh the last issue, the May issue that has baby pictures that some of you have not seen. They're really cute. Um, and they were just they were a blast. I had so much fun with Buzzy Staffs. Everybody always makes fun of me because they say every year I say it's my best staffs ever, but it's true. I just adore these kiddos. Um, and then Mason, I have to give Mason a special shout out. It's not on your list, but indulge me.
029Mason is the first student ever to be named to the all state journalism staff. He did this three years in a row. So when Mason was a freshman, he competed in uh UIL and he did three events. He was a little disappointed cuz he worked really hard and he was an alternate. One morning I was coming to school and I found a penny and I'm real superstitious. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Time span doesn't ever work. Uh but it worked in this case. I found this penny, went into my room, had a message that he had moved up from the alternate position to a competitor in the regional meet. He never looked back. He went to regionals as a sophomore and a junior. He competed in three things, won every contest he ever entered,
030went to state both years, competed this year, had so many points that he was named to the all state staff three years in a row. Now he's going to UT to major in journalism. And I'm giving you this. He's going to be a soccer sports illustrated or some famous publication because this knowledge is vast and I want that on your desk when you're Thank you so much. All right, now we shift to some athletic recognitions. I'd like to bring down. They're walking super slow, but I know they can go very fast. U state traffic qualifiers. All right. So, uh, tell us your first name, your last name, and what events you participated in, and we'll end it there. Uh, and we'll have, uh, coach tell us kind of a little bit about how this team
031went. Max, one time hurdles, 300 hurdles, and the 4x1. I'm Blake Ber. I'm a sophomore, and I was in the 4x1 and 100 open. I'm Cole Train and I did the 4x1. Uh Patrick Car and I ran the 4x1. I'm Jack Hollman and I ran the 300 hurdles. I'm Laura Edis Wooten and I ran the 4x1. I'm James Lynch. I'm a junior and I run the one hurdles and 300 hurdles. I'm Coach Ryver. I did not run any events, but I had the privilege uh to coach the hurdles. I'm Seth Grub, relays and pull ball coach. Coach Nariel, I coach the pros. Coach Williams, I coach high jump in the spring. Uh Jonathan Holidayiday, head boys track. And then I coach the long jump. Coach Rickets, I work with head girls coach work with discharge.
032So coach Holiday, tell us a little bit. I understand that these all hit personal bests at state. Tell us a little bit about that. Uh yes. So, they'll never brag on them, so we'll brag on them for them. Uh, Max down there at the end, he owns the record in the 110 hurdles and the 300 hurdles. Jack Holland right here. What's your name, Jack? Uh, he already said he's coming for Jack uh Max's record next year, so look out for him. Uh Blake Bonn, he ran 1082 was his 100 meter dash time, knocking off 5/10 of a second uh from the beginning of the season to the end. And then our 4x1 team, uh Patrick Colrin, Attakus, and then James and Max, and then DK Garland was an alternate as well. They broke a school
033record that was set 2011. So, wow. Congratulations uh coach and players. I know all the parents out there of these students give us away because I know it's a lot of work to support a [Music] lot. Our next athletes to be recognized. UIL state qualifiers, girls team and girls individual qualifiers. Come on in. I'm going to let coach explain kind of how this this team did. Uh cuz he does such a great job doing that. Let's meet who's here. here. Give us your first name, last name, what grade you're in, and then we'll hear a little bit about you all. Um, I'm Emily Friendley and I'm a junior. I'm Terra Cam and I'm a sophomore. I'm Taylor Simon and I'm a sophomore. I'm Aaron and I'm a freshman. I'm Heidi Anderson and I'm a senior.
034I'm Lindsay Lee and I'm a senior. I'm Jordan Sandaval and I'm a senior. I'm Skyler Jones and I'm a sophomore. I'm Michelle Lee and I'm a freshman. I'm Coach McQuiston, very proud coach of these young lags. The uh two 2025 state champions, three beat, four in the last five years. So each of these young ladies who are on the team, the the five standing closest to me were the were the fortunate ones that went through a whole year of qualifying and knocked down dragouts with their teammates and represented us at the state tournament. at the state tournament. Well, first off, it goes the this I I I can't think of a time this ever happened in 27 years of coaching boys 5A 6A. These young ladies never lost a tournament all year long. Not marginal
035victory was 31 strokes. And that's kind of like a 55 to nothing but by kicking off the ball. Um, and they wound up, we have a ranking system through our uh our live scoring that's it's a very accurate ranking system and these young ladies wound up ranked number one in the state across all all classifications 5864. We have three that are going to play college golf, three seniors. One's going to be at UIW, one's going to be at St. Mary's one's going I kind of want to I'm going to talk her into staying. I'm going to go for her. She's going to Rollins, which is 20 minutes north of Orlando and 40 minutes from the beach. So, uh I'm very fortunate to coach these young ladies. They're going to go represent the state of Texas
036in Pinehurst, North Carolina, and try to get that national championship we've been after for for several years. So, it's an honor to coach them. Thank you all for having us this evening. Can I keep going? Yeah, I remember this came out the last week. Michelle Lee also had an individual bronze from that team. So, let's clap for her as well. Speaking of nationals, right, is this who I'm talking to here? We've got national qualifiers for the US National Chemistry Olympiad. Tell us who you are and we'll learn a little bit more about this uh uh event was sponsored by the American Chemical Society. Hi, I'm Andy and I'm a junior. I'm Ben Clementstein. I'm a [Music] sophomore. Who of you want to tell us a little bit about the kinds of things that you uh
037have to know to to reach this level? I understand your national scores have not been released yet, but you qualify. What What is the contest? So, it is a chemistry competition obviously and it requires a lot of chemical knowledge beyond the scope of the AP exam and so you have to study things like I don't know extra kinetics, thermodynamics, all extra chemistry stuff that's outside of what you learn in a normal classroom. And I feel like it's just a lot of extra preparation that you have to do in order to succeed on the test. Yeah. Um for the regional test that's definitely the case. And the national test there's three sections is multiple choice Q. And then there's also a laboratory. And so for that section of the test you have to know your descriptive
038count, you know. Um one of them you had to know uh solubility rules, precipitation buffers, etc. So it's more practical. I know exactly where I'm sophomore. Wow. Yeah. Very impressive. And I think we're staying because we are next is the UIL science team state qualifiers. The rest of y'all know death. Now, uh, this team that you see before you qualified in the UIL state team competition after they, uh, earned first place finishes at both district and regional competition. They also finished top overall score at both district and regional in biology, in chemistry, and in physics. Now, the state meet, I understand, is on the 19th, right? Is that this weekend? Yeah, Monday. On Monday, next Monday in Austin. So, let's meet the other two folks in this team. Hello, I'm Lucas Rodriguez and I'm a
039sophomore. I'm Eli Yun and I am a senior. Great. And so what can you expect what to say, Eli? So this is going to be a really hard test. We're going against, you know, the most competitive schools um in our whole state, but um we've been studying a lot and reading a lot, so I think we're going to do great. Congratulations on coming. Are you guys part of the science the state science look at qualifying team as well? So then stay here. Anybody else come down? Come on down. science. This is our state science Olympia qualifying teams. I'm really impressed at the way you kind of scaffold it out, Ron. Great job. Let's meet the additional folks here. Tell us your first name and last name and then you'll pass the mic. this uh Olympia
040team, the state team uh in April and you guys got second place at the Rio Grand regional competition which qualified you to go to state. Now this team finished 11 out of 30 teams in the state at the&m competition and you also earned awards in Kim Lab wind power bungee drop and something called we've got your number event which I I'll ask later. Tell us who you are and pass the mic. I'm all here. I'm Sophia Lero. I'm Eler Yun. I'm Elena Kint. I'm Audi Dibble. I'm Pepper Smith. I'm Juliana. How are you gone? I'm Davis Bradley. Thanks, Davis. And of course, you're in the corner trying not to put any attention on him. Of course, Ron Malasi, our science teacher of excellence at the high school. And we're all appreciate him. We appreciate you,
041Ron. Anything else to add? So, I'll give you four quick ones. Uh, work ethic. I love work ethic and the people that have work ethic love me. Not everybody loves me. There's an awful lot of people that work real hard and they understand that when I push them and push them and push them, this is the result. And, you know, there's a lot of other schools that aren't reaching those things. Uh, as Dr. Harris said we still continue with UIL this coming week. So fellows will be going with me to Austin. We'll hopefully come back with something there. Uh I got in at 12:40 a.m. this morning from Columbus, Ohio from the International Science and Engineering Fair. Uh TXSEF had,200 projects, 10 advanced to international and Alamo High School was represented by one of those
04210. results on Friday uh from that. And I'm going to add one thing this year and I just might surprise the the bosses as well as the trustees. Um and I don't like to flatter administration too much because they may think I'm too happy or something. Mrs. Smith has been extremely flexible with me how I do things. Um this is year 40 that I'm finishing today, next week. So I'm still here because I still get treated very well and if somebody wants to start micromanaging me, you know, time's up. So you know when things are good, I want people to understand that, you know, the principal is running the school and they have to make decisions. And when I say to her, I need to be doing this instead of this. I need time for
043this, whatever. And it's done. The kids are the benefit, not me. All right. Now our next is a recognition and uh Dr. Basher if you need to add anything let me know. This is the superintendent student advisory council. Now this is a group that the superintendent established to hear from students about their experiences and recommendations from them about improvement at their schools. Now the council is also about ongoing leadership lessons to foster growth and development into becoming confident and equipped student leaders in our learning organization. Now as you can see it's a member it's made up of juniors, eighth graders and fifth graders and they all work together in mixed grade groups. And uh we're always super impressed at uh how the different groups support each other, especially the juniors uh and taking partnership over
044the fifth graders. Let's let tell us your first name, your last name, what grade you're in, and then pass the mic. Okay. I'm George Whiteside and I'm a fifth grader. I'm Blake Bowman and I go to Cambridge and I'm a fifth grader. I'm Eliza and I'm a junior. Marach Olsson and I'm a junior. I'm Nie Subazay and I'm a junior. Ivan Romano, I'm a junior. Mariah Gardner and I'm a junior. Charlie Boss and I'm a junior. I'm Presley Als and I'm a junior. I'm Jess Gulo and I'm a junior. I'm Jack Hullman and I'm a junior. I'm Ros and I'm a fifth grade. I'm Michael Wart and I'm a fifth grader. I'm Julie Doug Brown and I'm in fifth grade. I'm June Kingman and I'm in fifth grade. I'm Easter Guerrero and I'm in fifth
045grade. I'm Donnie Warberger and I'm in fifth grade. I'm Bibby and I'm in fifth grade. I'm Evelyn Harpford and I'm in fifth grade. I'm Gmanth. Thank you all so much. This is such a fun group. I've got to be part of all of their groups today. Dr. Micher, what would you have to add? Yeah. So, I would just share um with everyone that we talk a lot about leadership. We talk about our character touch point in the district. We talk about humility, empathy, courage, resilience, and dignity. And the way that those core values make up leadership in Elmo Heights Independent School District. What I will tell you in the audience is that a bright spot of being superintendent are the days that I get to work with these kiddos. So in the wave your hand
046and let us recognize you. These are your great kids. These kids are not shy. They have opinions about what is working in their schools and what is not working in their schools. And besides letting me know their opinions, they're willing to roll up their sleeves and come up with some real solutions to make a difference. And that fills my heart in a big way. Um, one other bright spot that I would just share, juniors, raise your hand if you're a junior out there. These kiddos are so special. They are such great mentors to our eighth graders and to our fifth graders. I have them mix and mingle and lead kids around the school at the high school. And I'm just always in awe at the care that they take um and the the way that
047they instill their hearts in in our in our younger leaders. And so each one of you, I've told you this every time I was selected, you're a leader on our campus. Leadership is part of who you are. and leadership in you is what makes me incredibly proud. So, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for being We're going to shift away from students for a moment as you can see and this is a very special award. Um uh you know we have great teachers in the district uh and sometimes they get sick and they can't be in school right and so it's really important that we try not to miss a beat with student learning. And to do that, you got to have substitutes. Now, I can say that uh it's it's not an
048overstatement to say it's difficult to get subs in in public ed generally and around the city. Uh we were blessed with about 200 active subs. Uh our assistant superintendent over there, Frank Stannis, heads up our sub efforts is training and making sure we get recruit subs. um in his HR office, Maria Casinos helps as well as our sub coordinator at the district level is uh Melissa Nichols. And each campus secretary does a great job of making sure we have sub coverage when we need it uh on various things. It's like all of these athletic trips, golf or uh track, you you've got to have subs in there because they go off and people stay out. Um so you get subs. Now, we've got great subs, and so that's not what this award is. This award
049is about great subs who come in almost every day. We've got about 172 instructional days in the school year. And these subs here are being honored with a new award that we created called the Century Club. These are subs who have logged 100 assignments this year. to take it off. So, Mr. T, will you hold that up? Oh, yeah. So, they get uh you guys will get a beautiful plaque. We'll make sure that get some great pictures coming forward. Okay. Um but now what I need to do is introduce you to the group. So, what I'm going to do is tell tell us your first name and your last name. You pass the mic and let over there. All right. My name is James Tally. I'm so probably about 12 years now in the district.
0509 years maybe. They all run together. So anyway, uh I live in the neighborhood and so it's just something for me to do and I enjoy. I wouldn't do it 100 days. I wouldn't have done it. My name is Cynthia Manaka. I'm a sub at the Mohigh High School. I've been studying there for six years and I'm happy to um help out any student when um whenever I'm available. So I'm Liz Garcia and I am from high school and I've been a substitute for eight years. My name is Julia. I am one of the nurses in the district. So I serve as a nurse and a teacher in all the campuses here in the district for about six years now as well. I'm Candy Sugar and this is my third year subbing. I just moved
051here from El Paso. So when we moved here, I started subbing and I really enjoy it. I'm Sally Reese and I retired from Cambridge three years ago and I'm still at Cambridge almost every day and sometimes here at Woodridge, too. So, but I do it because I love the hugs from the kids. I'm Mike Schwarz. uh met the high school again in October and never really left. So, it's been a pleasure. Well, I can't say how much we appreciate you all. I hope you give them a big round. The next uh group we'd like to recognize is a group that we call senior ambassadors. Now, they're seniors in high school. And uh in case you were guess wondering now, this is a group of talented seniors that have stepped up to really help us to
052sell the district. Anytime we have groups like uh senior mules and grand mules, we have organizations with with events where they come in. We've got a faith-based leaders meeting. Uh we've got the Elite School Foundation does a number of things. We create videos for these folks. They tell their story about being in Almo Heights, what they love about Osmo Heights, and what kind of impact it's had on them. And so, we're super excited to have them. I know Julianne, our director of communications, really works a lot with these students. So, we wanted to recognize them for their service this year. And we're super sad that they're seniors cuz then that may have to leave us. So, but let's tell us your first name, last name, and we'll pass the mic. I'm Julia Zel. I'm Conor
053Hamilton. I'm Eli. Elanor Dro. Daniel Corsa. So, Daniel, tell us a little bit about the kinds of things you do and what it's meant to you to be a senior ambassador for us. Yes, sir. We got to do a lot of fun things. So, we got to take our amazing seniors from our community, not our high school seniors, but our senior citizens who are always so kind and and amazing to be with. We got to take them and tour them around the school. And it was really just an overall great experience. We got to talk about our experience throughout the Heights from when we were in Howard even all the way up to our years in high school. So, it was a really great experience for all of us, I think. Well, we appreciate you
054all so much and we're going to miss you. Can you tell us what your plans are for next year and you can pass the mic? All right. I plan on attending SMU and I will be majoring in business. I'll be attending Texas A&M for an animal science degree in the hopes of becoming a veterinarian. I will be attending Colorado College in Colorado Springs and I'm majoring in chemistry. I'll be attending Texas&M University and I'll be doing business. I'm going to the University of Virginia and hoping to study for that. Last one. And so now we're going to hear what the student council at Elmo Heights High School has been up to. President Daniel Corso, are you ready? I'm ready. So I've been looking forward to this all year. It's my turn to get to pass
055the figurative torch, so to speak, to uh the new president and vice president for student council going on to the 25 school year. So let me talk about beer right here. Beer has been my right-hand man, my partner in crime, the Robin to my Batman for the past two years. Been such a great help, such a great guy. He's actually a real leader and amazing person at heart. Um, and has just been such an amazing overall and student council. And then also we have Lindsay Lamb who will be our vice president next year. Talking about stepping up, Lindsay Lamb really stepped up this year. She was at every single event. She was so happy to be there with real enthusiasm and put in real work. Her work ethic throughout the entire year was really amazing
056and I'm just so proud of them. So I'll I'll let them speak on their their talents today. Thank you Daniel. So as you know or as Daniel said my name is Ver Patel. I've been in student council for the past 2 years and as um president I want to my main goal is to increase student engagement in the different fun activities that we offer such as obviously pep rallies and then our first Fridays every month. And now I will pass it on to our next vice president Lindsay Lamb. Hi my name is Lindsay Lamb. Thank you to Ver and Daniel for this honor. I'm so incredibly honored to be your vice president next year. I am truly engaged in student council and I really hope to bring more student engagement next year and I've been
057involved in student council since my sophomore year-ish. My brother got me involved. I joined this year as historian and we documented a lot of great events and I loved showing up bringing the enthusiasm as Daniel said and I'm so incredibly excited for next year to be the vice president. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you. We appreciate you next. Wow. I think Monarch's trophy ought to bring us to Yeah. What do you think? That's That's right there. Nobody's here. All right. So, we're going to move very quickly. I want to see you in action. Just jump to the end. Yeah, I will. Do I hear a motion to turn the meeting? We can do that. Pretty one listening to Okay, we ready? Is this Am I on? All right. Now, uh, we're going to move to item
058four, citizens wishing to address the board. Um, I think that we had one sign up, but I'm not positive if they were signing up to be here or if they actually wanted to speak. Vicki and [Music] Ben, I'm going to take that as a no. Okay. All right. We didn't receive any forms requesting to speak tonight, but if anyone would like to speak, could you please let us know now by raising your hand? Okay, Mike, you sure? All right, I'm going to move on to section five, items for presentation or possible action. Our next item on the agenda and uh we're going to go to section I got to keep we have a number issue here. uh section 5A tender teacher incentive aotment presenter the wonderful Dr. Jimmy Walker. All right. Good evening. So this
059is my last presentation of the year about teacher incentive aotment. So you all have heard heard me talking about us talking about this for three years. So tonight I'm going to do an overview and then talk about some next steps as we go through the summer and the spring. So I begin every TIA presentation just talking about what is TIA. It stands for teacher incentive aotment. And this is uh funded through state and it's coordinated through TEA funded through legislative appropriations. And it creates an opportunity for all of our Allen Heights teachers to earn up to an additional $14,000 a year stipened for 5 years. And um we had our plan approved by TEA last year. This year we are in data collection here, which means we're tracking all of our data, all of our
060student growth, and we'll submit it to TEA and Texas Tech for validation in October. So for our teachers to qualify for teacher incentive aotment, there's two required components. The first one is a classroom observation. In Almo Heights, our observation tool is called TA test. And the other component is student growth. There's three levels for teacher incentive aotment. Recognized, exemplary, masters. I remember it by thinking rapid eye movement, re to remember which one is low, which is the middle, which is the high. But for recognized that means on their observation they have a 3.7 average which equates to 74% of all possible points on that observation. Student growth 55% of students meet or exceed their growth expectations meaning they made a year's worth of growth in a year's time. And that stipened amount varies from about
061$3,300 to 38. Exemplary you can see is just a step above that. But if you'll notice that master's level, that highest tier is significantly higher than recognized or exemplary. There under classroom observation, teach teachers have earned 90% of all possible points on an observation. And 70% of their students have made a full year's worth of growth in a year's time. And the siphon amount varies from 2,00 12,900 up to just about $15,000. Each year the exact amounts are publish published by TEA. They vary a little bit by campus. You can see that uh Woodridge for instance recognized is 3,295, but Howard and Cambridge are a little bit higher. That's because it's all dependent on the percentage of students at that campus who qualify for free and reduced lunch and are considered economically disadvantaged. This is
062updated every single April. So these amounts are good for this year. Before we pay our teachers out next year, those amounts will be updated. So here is one thing I don't think I've shared with you before. If you look in Texas, there are almost 1,200 school districts. The total number of districts that do have a teacher incentive aotment plan is about 50%. And so out of all the districts in the state, half of them offer TIA. But look to the right. 378,000 teachers, just shy of 27,000 have earned a designation. That's a pretty big difference. You're probably saying, why? It's because most of the districts that do offer TIA, it's only through START tested grade levels. That's the easiest way to get this off the ground. It's the easiest way to manage it. It's the
063most straightforward way. And so that's why even though a district may offer teacher incentive aotment, not all of the teachers qualify for it. But here in Almo Heights, one of the commitments we made in the very beginning was that if we were going to do this, we were going to find a pathway for every single teacher, one for all, all for one, because the learning that happens in kindergarten or in PE or in band, it's all valuable to the complete student experience. So instead of just relying on STAR, we have 10 different assessments. So we include our preK teachers through something called Circle. We use MAP and MCL class for most elementary and junior school, Apple for world languages, national Latin exam to make sure our Latin teacher can qualify. All of our CTE classes
064are eligible through something called precision exams. We even have our ACE behavior teachers eligible so through something called ask three which is a Pearson clinical tool students uh in SST classes star alt PE classes it's fitness grant and then for everything else we wrote and validated 68 local assessments so that marching band has a pathway to qualify for TIA so that everyone all of our social studies everybody has a pathway forward now doing it in this very unique way very unique does mean that there is also an additional cost for this so we spend about $87,000 a year on assessments I will say about $60,000 of that were assessments we were already doing so like math um we were already doing Apple to a degree but there were some additional tests that came online so
065that we could make a path forward for all teachers we do uh have the partnership of a data consultant just to make sure all of our math is correct, all my math is correct. So in the end, this is probably about a $100,000 investment. The only way we can do this is that this is a self- sustaining program. So this is back of the envelope math. We have about 350 teachers. If we say first year, maybe 40% will qualify. That's 140. If you multiply that times $7,000, which is that mid level, we'll wind up putting 9 $980,000 is what we expect for TIA funding. We keep 10% of that. That will offset the cost. So that this is a program we can continue to offer year after year without incurring additional expenses on the part
066of Alma Heights. It's not just a financial investment in making ending up a plan of this magnitude. It's also just the time intensity on our administrators to stand this up. Prior to prior to TIA, our teachers were on a three-year waiver, meaning administrators only observed about a third of the teachers on their campus each year. So, if you do the math there, that means every administrator was doing about seven or eight evaluations. This year with everybody evaluated that jumped up to 19 to 20 evaluations per administrator per year. And that is a very timeintensive ask of our administrators because the observation is not just going into a teacher's classroom for 45 minutes. It's a pre-conference with the teacher. It's the observation. It's the write up. It's the postconference and then a summited at the very
067end. which means every single observation they're doing is taking between 3 to 5 hours. But that time investment has paid off. We've asked our teachers every year in February, how valuable do they find that t test being observed? And you can see tracking our data from 2022, the big jump we made at our teachers saying that they have learned a lot by having their administrators in their room talk about their instructional practices and how to improve. So we love to see that that time investment is really paying off in the development of our teachers. One of the things we also had to do with 17 different evaluators is make sure that no matter who was coming into your classroom that we were all evaluating the same way. So we've spent a lot of time the
068first year we had our um principles work in trios and they observed together with groups of three to make sure that we were all seeing the same thing and scoring it the same way. on this although it's kind of hard to see if you see that dotted line uh that's our mean and then the line to the left line to the right that's 1.5 standard deviations we want to stay within those lines and we did it in every single content area was just a hair outside where we want it to be for that inner writer reliability but girl that's amazing that is absolutely amazing with doing over 300 observations to have them visit this much in line and we not just by department but when we look at by appraiser so this is individual appraisers
069that is nicely aligned depending on doesn't matter who your appraiser is the scores that we were giving were consistent I will note we had one observer who was outside of that but that's purposeful that is any of our teachers who did not like their original observation who asked for a second Frank Alfado, who's our expert, went in and did that second appraiser appraisal and teachers who had really high scores were not asking for second appraisals. So it makes sense this was only four I think observations in total but otherwise this is really well done by our administrators. So student growth which is a hot topic amongst our teachers right now is we've given these assessments. How do we know what is a year's worth of growth in a year's time in band? What is it
070with three-year-olds? So for math, which is about 50% of our teachers, that's set by math with national norms. Inclass is set by math. I mean by in-class with national norms. Everything else we set over the summer with the help of our data consultants. What's good about our system is this year those growth norms will be set over who took the test this year. Maybe it's a hundred kids, but then next year we'll add another hundred kids. We'll add another 100 kids so that those growth targets will just increase in validity over time. Um, I've told everyone all year, these growth expectations are high and I make zero apologies for that. It is a earned recognition. This is not an entitlement. And I'm excited to see the number of teachers in our district that earn this
071just increase year-over-year. But beyond just the impact on the quality of teaching in our classrooms, we're also seeing an impact in student outcomes. So this is preliminary because some of our testing goes through this Friday. But as you look at this um NPR's national percentile rank. So this year our mean median, excuse me, growth was at the 74th national percentile rank and this is science. Last year was at the 62nd. And looking at the chart at the bottom, it's achievement from last year. So our median achievement was at the 78th percentile. I'm sorry, that's fall. And then spring it jumped to the 85th. So those are incredibly strong science scores. But it's not just science. Here's reading. We went from last year our growth being at the 50th national percentile. This year the 68th. And
072you can look at the achievement on that bottom. Fall 64th, spring 71st. And you all know our content area of focus this year was math. And we have seen tremendous growth in math as well. Again, last year being at the 50th, this point we're at the 63rd and the achievement from 65th in the fall to 71st. So the fact that we have everybody focused on student growth, every class, every teacher, every student, that's making an impact. Some final updates about TIA. This is a unique year because our teachers who retire this year are not eligible for TIA because they're not retiring with the designation. But going forward, even when a teacher retires because you get paid for the year afterwards, we'll find them. If they've retired in good um in goodstead with us, then we'll
073find them and pay out that final TIA payment. One other thing I do want to mention, the only way this works is if everyone in our district believes this is a fair and equitable system of evaluation. So we have very clear expectations for when teachers give the test, how they give the test, so that it feels fair and no one's like, "Well, it's not fair. She gave the test a month after I did. Her class had an advantage." So we've been very clear about that. We also have situations where um a teacher is scoring students. So like if they're four years old, the teacher is scoring the student's response. 25% of those have to be scored by someone other than the home room teacher. Just to make sure we all live life above a line
074and no one can say it's not fair or someone had an unfair advantage. We ask all of our teachers to sign an oath of integrity at the beginning of year of what they will do to adhere testing protocols and at the end of the year they sign an end ofear at the station of integrity. And we framed all this around the core value of integrity. We're all doing this the right way uh so that we all benefit. timeline and next steps. In May, we're finishing all of our testing. We're linking our teachers who are support teachers, special ed, with teachers on ros with students on rosters. In June, I have uh Valerie Alvarez and Jenny Holt, who are two of our instructional coaches, working with me in a spreadsheet sweatshop just cleaning all of that
075data so that we can send it to Deep Dive, which is our consultant. In July to help set those growth targets in August, we'll have administrator reports so that our principles will know which teachers on their campus are qualifying for TIA. We'll send out individual reports to every single teacher in September so they can verify their test scores, verify their rosters, and we'll work through any lingering uh problems. And then in October, we submit this entire data set to TEA and Texas Tech for validation. And then we wait and then in March, we'll find out final approval and designations. And then y'all next spring we get to pay out this in one lump sum checks to teachers and that is going to be a very exciting day for all of us. So that are the
076that concludes the updates for teacher and development. Thank you Dr. Walker. Um, I know it's very important that what you're doing and I know that you're way ahead of a lot of districts and and I know you're doing it for our teachers and and I just can't thank you enough. Um, does anyone have any questions? I got a comment like I love that y'all are doing it for all teachers. You might have referenced this earlier, but what a recruiting advantage for Frank Standage as it goes out to recruit new staff. Like come to Alma Heights where you can get TIA bonus when you can't do it at another school. And then in watching some of the bills before the legislature, if they do get rid of STAR, you don't have to rewrite all of this
077work in those districts that are relying on STAR. If they get rid of that test, they have to do all this work over again. So kudos to you guys uh for creating an independent way of doing everything. Thank you. Genius. Anyone? Hunter Karen, come on. Karen. All right. I did have one question. Uh back a few slides. you you had some data about um some students and what I found interesting was there was one slide where like 1,200 1,200 students were tested and then another slide it was like 2800 students and so I I just didn't understand what the the difference was. Sure, I'm happy to clarify. Um so this is MAP. We haven't completed all of the testing, but in science, which I think is this first one, this only begins in fourth grade.
078So, it's fourth grade through biology only. In reading, this is third grade through English 2 only. Gotcha. And then math is kindergarten through algebra 2. Okay. Yeah. What threw me off was K. It says math K through 12, but that's the name of the test. Yeah. Gotcha. All right. Anything else? All right. Well, let's move on to Thank you. Uh, let's move on to section 5B, our budget update. Presenter Matt Stringer. Good evening. So, uh, this year particularly, it's been it's been a bit of a challenge in terms of putting together some numbers and trying to forecast, uh, our budget and and even compensation. So, wanted to talk to you tonight about uh, what we know about compensation. Uh, but literally this is uh changing almost by the hour. So, right before our meeting tonight,
079uh, Dr. and I had a chance to get the latest update, legislative update uh and uh the uh information in this uh presentation. Um we'll touch on some of that, but uh other pieces of it, you know, it will need to be updated for sure. Um so it the latest that we know is that uh coming out of the legislature is that the likely uh structure of of compensation uh and funding as well is going to be more in line with the Senate version of uh of uh you know that's been proposed uh than the House version. These first couple slides talk about what the House version had, but I think they're you know this seems unlikely at this point. Um the house had a had a calculation to go through to in order to
080to determine the amount that was going to be allocated races. Um but it's likely to be the Senate on that part. Uh also the House was going to fund a number of different things and most of these are probably going to be stripped. uh the increase in special education funding. Uh that's kind of one area that's going to uh be adopted by the Senate that's coming from the House in terms of the intensity of service module uh model. But um you know the other items on here are either either stripped entirely or uh cut uh significantly. So, moving over to the Senate version, uh Senate version originally had the uh Senate Bill 26, which was passed earlier this uh spring during the legislative session in February. And um the if we go down to the
081kind of the bottom of that slide there where for districts for less than 10 I'm sorry 5,000 enrolled uh there's going to be $5,000 for uh each classroom teacher with three or four years of experience and $10,000 increase uh for each classroom teacher of 5 years uh plus experience. Uh that's coming from a what's going to be created called a teacher retention aotment and that'll get the headlines as we you know probably as as as this information is is known. Uh we expect to hear about this perhaps as soon as tomorrow uh so uh officially and maybe some of the details behind it as well. Um the Senate Bill 26 also has uh some other provisions in it. Uh but just to kind of sum up uh for our uh view tonight uh it's really
082the focus is around uh teachers uh and increasing pay for teachers. Now that's defined as as we understand it as classroom teachers uh whereas the house originally had it was including librarians, counselors and nurses. Uh but that is not found in the senate version. So it's just going to be classroom teachers that that uh that get this amount. So where we are on this is um as soon as tomorrow the reconcile version may be rolled out and then it will go to both chambers for uh for uh approval and voting. Uh and then after that the uh school finance legislation becomes law. And uh so that's we're kind of more in that uh not in that second box there. We think at this point we're on the verge of seeing the the reconciled version. Now
083left to our own devices. Um now okay regardless of what the legislature was doing uh as you'all know we had the budget advisory committee work on uh uh you know budget matters, compensation matters through the fall. Uh so going back to uh September 10, one of the targets that we had was in that last bullet there uh reducing payroll by to $44 million. Uh that was uh one of the items that we put out there in terms of like okay if the legislature does not provide for any additional funding at all. Uh then what do we need to do to uh to make it through the next bending and to start for this next year? That was that was the payroll goal. So personnel budgeting you can see there for 2425 uh the budget for
084this year was at 49 sorry 45.9 million uh and after working through the budget and uh a lot of work uh we are coming in at right now at 44.2 2 million. Um, now I want to say just for just to be said that um, and this is very important is that these are numbers up here, but this represents that difference represents a lot of people and uh, and and a lot of hard work by uh, staff across the district. Uh, special recognition for the hard work put in by Frank Stage in terms of providing us a framework for working on on on the cuts and cuts and positions. Um and it's a painful process and and I know you all know this but I just wanted to say that. So uh to get to
085go go from one number to to that number to the right. Um on the previous slide as mentioned um we had that target of 44 million. And so you kind of look at that and see okay well it's coming in at 44.2 why not 44? Well, one of the things that's happened, and this is a good news, is that the education foundation uh has um approved, as I understand it, an increase in their contribution up to uh by $400,000. Um and in doing so, uh that is going to help us uh to lower class sizes from what we had in the coming out of the budget advisory committee. So we really just super appreciate the work of the uh education foundation and all the donors who could contribute uh in any way large or small
086uh to the foundation. Thank you. Uh so for doing that and so that those dollars really made a difference uh to our community and our district. Yes. So, just to clarify, um, you know, my recommendation to y'all when we had conversation about this was just, uh, the the greatest impact, the highest leverage way that we can spend this money is to impact every student and every teacher. And so, that's what class size does. And so this enables us to go back to the um vision of the strategic plan um where we would use 18 as a divisor in kindergarten, 19 in first grade, uh 20 in second grade, 21 in third grade, 22 in all other grades. And so for example, uh we were projected in certain grade levels to start the year next year
087at 23 and 24. And so that enables us, you know, to hire additional personnel and bring those down to those target areas. As far as the secondary campuses goes, it allows us to um again reduce the divisor that we implemented this year. The divisor was 30 and you remember that we have over 60ome sections at our high school. They're over 34 currently. And so the divisor then will be um reduced to 28 which should hope help us um you know maintain 30 at the most in any of those classes. And so it's important to know that those are divisors. Those are not caps because we don't have the additional dollars to add another teacher if we would, you know, exceed that cap for example. Okay. And this is the first time they're giving us almost
0882 million. And this is year and they have committed y'all like the reason that I feel comfortable in um you know tagging something that we're we're saving is because they're committed to doing this every year from this year. So that's awesome. I'm incredibly grateful for them. We had our um school foundation board meeting today and they officially voted and so we will start messaging about this to the community to make sure that this momentum just continues so that folks see where their dollars are being spent um in an effort to you know the campaign is is fight for heights and and um Heather McFarland does an incredible job saying that the solution is in our community and so we're seeing that um take place. Well, and I think we should thank the community. Yeah, the
089foundation's just given us the money, but the community is the ones that actually funded it. So, big thanks to that. All right, Matt, back to you. So, um and looking at the uh the budget advisory committee also looked at our you know, binding targets to get through the next two school years. Uh you know, keeping in mind we're working on this back in in the fall. Um, and so one of the items that we had there is the third bullet point related to the compensation discussion is provide for raises for the remaining employees. And so this was the sequence. First, we wanted to get to that $44 million mark. And then we wanted to to budget some type of raises for employees, not knowing what the legislature was going to to do at that time.
090And so this is what that would look like. We had the compensation infringe from the previous slide I showed you at 44.2 million for next year. And then a 3% raise at the midpoint u would be a 1.189. So we would right now under this model we would have 45.4 million in in payroll. That's still less than what we had uh budgeted for for 2425. That said, with the likely news that we'll have maybe as soon as tomorrow, um that tomorrow's news may significantly change, you know, what that what that what those numbers look like there. So, but that's what we were doing on our own in order to have our own plan if the legislature didn't come through with anything. So uh the last slide here is uh just kind of a review of
091our calendar uh related to budget and tax rate adoption maybe a possible tax ratification election. Um, we added in a few dates there in June uh for u June 2nd noting that when we need to transmit information to to the paper in order to have the budget adoption being hosted uh by law and then budget committee on June 11th and then the board meeting move from June 18th to June 17th. Uh and then dropping down to August uh August date June sorry August 13th would be uh the drop dead date so to speak as far as going forward with the tax ratification function or not. Any questions about that version? I know we'd like to have unrestricted dollars coming from the state, but with our we can use some of those presumed retention dollars to
092at least for races and those type. I mean, like it's not like we just have to be a little bit more judicious about how we allocate and makes it a little makes the rubric a little more complex. Yeah. But it's not something that just because they have a designated allocation from the state doesn't mean it can't achieve some of our goals within our budget. Right. Absolutely. Yes. I mean it's it's it's great to have resources for for the classroom staff. Now, where it kind of comes into play is like what's left over and without an increase in the I should mention this and without an increase in the basic a lotment. Uh we just it'll be a super challenge to to be able to afford I guess increases for other staff positions that aren't covered
093by the legislation. Also along with that as far as like what we heard heard right before the meeting today is that uh the amounts on the Senate version is related just to salary increases and there's no uh dollars there to offset fringe cost associated with those salary increases. So that probably equates to us about $140,000 unfunded mandate that kind of go along with those salary increases that the teacher for the people which are needed but but you know that's kind of the way that it's looking right now. But so the bottom line it's more controlled funding. Yes, it is. Yes. And it doesn't protect programs or people that were cutting and so the conversation about cuts has always been how can we get back provides us no opportunity for that. So on on the on
094the calendar, and I'm speaking to newer board members, um you know, if we go through this calendar and we get towards August and we're not 100% sure what Vader means because we speak, as I learned when I got here, we speak in a lot of funny acronyms. Um, but Vader is a copper penny tax that we will uh um possibly discuss about um putting on our voters. And so um if we have any questions about that, about what it means um what it means tax-wise, um please reach out to Mr. Ser or or me or anyone really, Dana, um because it is important. I don't want to get to August and all of a sudden we're trying to figure out what this stuff means. So that it's kind of a forewarning I guess I would
095say is let's you know educate ourselves because I I I fully don't understand it totally. Um and so I I want to be prepared if we get to this deadline. So two two quick questions. So I know that efficiency audit that is underway right now. Correct. Happening right now. Yes. Okay. And then my second question is over the and I know we don't know you know what's going to exactly happen from the legislature but um with these salary increases you know I do think it would be nice to get the chart that you've given us before about the Vera County you know teacher salaries and where we fall you know because I guess if everybody's getting an increase I mean we still want to make sure that we're attracting and retaining teachers relative to other
096districts and a lot of districts around us are over that $5,000 level. So, um I know Frank and I were talking just a while ago that that that may be a marketing point for us to be able to say, "Okay, our teachers are going to get a $10,000." And so, whereas districts that are, you know, with higher enrollments may not be able to afford as much. So, there's there's some play in that. Yeah, for sure. They can hire you. We just have programs for you. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. Thanks, ma'am. Um, moving on, we are going to go to section 5B. No C, excuse me. Mr. Mike Hager in our bond update. Good evening. You're going to be here for about five seconds. So, get [Music]
097So, I thought I'd instead of just listing out, I would do some pictures in. So, a little more entertaining maybe. So, we start at the high school. And this is the picture of from the front of the building uh where we're putting in uh framing walls up on the first floor and the second floor. Uh the first floor there are counselor's offices. Above that would be classrooms. Uh our steel supplier has been very uh helpful with us. They hold the steel and when we need it, they deliver it. And so all on the uh concrete uh slab are all the different um steel components that we need. uh the department needs to to continue the structure. We like about 40 ft I think something like that to finish out section B which is the main
098wing before we turn and go down to the south wing. This just gives you a shot there of the main wing as they're coming down. This is setting at from the south wing looking over to the north wing. You can just see the the uh framing going up. Uh and this is one of the uh exterior patios on the second floor. Uh so you have a view back towards the stem building and the uh field. This is the second floor. You can see the framing going up, but also HBAC being put in. The electrical uh components are being run on there. When you get to the third floor, they haven't got to the framing yet, but they're finishing up the deck uh for roofing on that. Remember, on the third floor, it's set back 10
099ft from the edge of the building all the way around. So, there's a 10-ft walkway that maintenance has access to that uh can get them to the roof for for any. When we go to the east side of the stadium, that's the north uh building which will house the golf simulators, the large um room for team meetings or however the district wants to use it. Multi-purpose. Those uh concession, excuse me, concessions are right there. Uh right at that you can see the the uh peers or columns for the bleachers going in there. Uh they'll start framing the inside and doing roof on that north building within the next uh week or so. This gives you another shot just of the bleachers. The bleachers are on order. Mid July right now is the schedule for those
100to to arrive. And then this is the south building that they're working on. Now this is the uh public restrooms, locker room, visitor locker room, and a couple storage storage. And then the uh just a summary of the expenses that y'all you get the report, the board gets the report. Then the athletic complex. So this is a shot of where the locker room is. They are uh the paths being in built. Uh the electrical and plumbing are there. The trenches uh plumbing was supposed to start today laying pipe. Um this is at the corner of the locker room looking back towards the softball field where that uh water truck is. there would be where the softball field will be set. Cambridge uh portables will be delivered on the 23rd of June uh the 23rd of
101this month. We will be moving out every everything in building one. Uh we started our first uh owners architects contractors meeting today. Then Woodridge basically the same. The port won't get there till November the 17th because that work will be done in the spring. That's always three and four. Also the cafeteria and the auditorium will be touched in as well. We have a combined OAC meeting with Woodbridge and Cambridge. There's the the report as far as extensive [Music] completion. Then Howard, we are still having design meetings. We have one this afternoon. Uh and that's going really well. Teachers are very engaged in the process. Uh some of the things I thought they didn't want they really do want. So it's it's a great process and architect's doing a great job with that. Uh general contractor
102will be one of the items after this for selection in there. Uh the [Music] report finally is the baseball field. Uh the general contractor we that's on the agenda tonight as well. work is to start at once. Then I do a little renderings of the the stands with the cover. Gives you another shot from the side and then the restrooms that will be added. Any question? Any questions? Any questions? Am I on? I I had one question. Uh and I hate to do this, but the very first sign you the slide you showed, I saw a brick mockup, right? And I that brick I'm just asking is the intention for the brick to match the all the brick or is it because it looks a lot wider. It it matches the mule dome and the
103uh uh skin building. Okay. So, but is it is it going to it's not matching the building that it's attaching to? No, because that was built Well, the add-on to that was built uh 20 years ago. So, to find that exact color, this is probably what the exact color would be as today, but I just I mean, I don't care. I'm just I'm just asking. Yeah. Okay. I think it's an acne. I think is who who it is. I'm sure it is. All right. Any other questions? Ty. Nope. I'm good. Thank you, though. No, no, no. Okay. Let's move to uh section 5D, approval of project three, Seymar general contractor. So, we uh asked for proposals in March. Uh we had seven uh contractors submitted proposals. We evaluated all those. There you go. Thanks. So,
104we evaluated all those. Uh the building committee, two members of the building committee, uh LPA and project control evaluated those proposals. Um when we ranked all those, Barley was received most points. and Joris and then Guido followed second and third. So we would recommend tonight to award the project three which is Howard and the junior school project to Barley. Okay. So the recommendation is uh to approve Barl as project 3 CMR at general contractor. Um do I have a motion to approve the project 3 CMR general contractor So move. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Any further discussion? So the timing, sorry, just the timing of because they're at they're doing the high school. So when would the timing of this start? Well, we're in design work now. So part of they have
105preconstruction uh services. So they help with design of the of Howard. So that'll be going on pretty much immediately within the next month. Uh uh construction time won't start till next uh spring, late spring, about this time next year. Finishing up the high school, right? High school. I mean, we'll have different teams. Yeah, they have the resources to do that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I hope so. Also want to say Mark Keeper is here with We like you. Keep it up. Um, okay. So, let's take it to the vote. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose, please say nay. That motion passes. Thank you. All right. Now, moving on to section 5E, approval of baseball construction project. Now, remind me, are we approving the project or are we approving the contractor?
106We're approving the contract. Okay. So we uh advertise for bids to CSP contract. Uh we had one bid received from uh ROI uh 4,55,000 which is under budget. We took this to the building committee at the first of the uh month. Uh there was some questions about uh did they have all their numbers in especially for bleachers. Uh we verified that that was the case and so uh we're coming forward with go ahead and recommending that work to be done. Sounds great. Uh and we've all heard about this. Yeah. I guess just clarifying one thing on that. They didn't have the bleacher number in when they submitted the bid, but they receive it. Okay. They did get it. They did get it and said that they're good. We're good. Okay. So, that was all of
107our concerns. Um, so, uh, with that, uh, do I have a motion to approve the baseball construction contractor RL Road? Sorry, just one question. I, you know, I missed that building committee meeting. I wasn't there. But, um, so we just got one bid. Is that I mean, is it just because it was so much of a smaller No. the bleacher um manufacturer was not returning phone calls to several of the uh contractors and so they didn't put in a good so Lauren for what it's worth I have the same concern okay um however uh the the subcontractor supplier was not he was ghosting everyone that was trying to get a bleacher number and um that discouraged a lot of generals from from providing a proposal. Um, but I felt a lot better when I realized
108that this contractor does this stuff all day long. They do a lot of bleacher work. I mean, that's just kind of their niche. And I also felt bad I felt better that it wasn't a $100 million project. It was a $1 million project. Right. Right. So, I wasn't, you know, I kind of calmed down, so to speak. Uh so um does that answer your question? Thanks for the explanation. Uh all right so I think I was at do I have a motion to approve or roie? So move. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you. Uh all in favor please say I. I. Uh post say nay. All right the motion carries. Thank you. All right. Let's move on to section 5. Approval of LPA feeds Howard. Um I want to say Howard Elementary, but that's not
109Early Child. Early Child. So we last week we uh discussed they submitted a uh fixed fee uh for Howard. Uh there was some conversation would it be could they do percentage wise? So I asked Sarah to make up two which we put in the board book. One was fixed ft, one was percentage based. Uh she sent an email should have been with your attachment as well that just gave you option one and option two what was behind it. Different Sarah is here if you got any questions for her. But it just depends on which option you would like to take. You know, I'm I'm going to I'm going to fib and say that I didn't see this in my sport book, but um that's why I've started bringing him hard copies. Yes. Thank you. Uh
110well, all right. Who else saw it? Nobody. We actually have to look at it. All right. So anyhow, um, but what we did figure out back of the hand math was that it was a roughly 7% fee on the fixed fee and their option two is a 7% fee. So um, to me it is uh either or. Um, for me I I'm I'm fine with a fixed fee, but I'm I'm fine to discuss it if you wish. Did Mike, did you have a recommendation in one way or the other? No, I really don't. Uh the percentage part is I mean if you save construction cost, you save a little fee there. Uh with the tariffs and everything going on, you have just as much as it goes up a little bit as well. So fixed
111fees sort of blocks in where I think it is right now. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, I mean this is kind of premature, but I mean is there any anybody else want to talk about it? U I I prefer fixed fees. Yeah. I mean fixed fee is a fixed fee. So all right. Uh with no further discussion, do I have a motion to approve LPA fees for Howard Early Childhood Center? Thank you, Ty. Second. Thank you, Hunter. Any further discussion? No. All right. All in favor, please say I. I. All oppose say nay. All right. Thank you. The motion carries. Thanks, Sarah. Thank you, Sarah. Glad you came out. Uh, sure. It was very exciting. Great district with amazing kids. It was, right? We do have a lot of great kids. Lots of celebrity. Okay, moving
112on. Section six, consent agenda. The next item on our board con agenda is the consent agenda. These items are considered routine by the board or have been previously reviewed and discussed in prior meetings and that we therefore enact it with one motion. Is there anything of the board of the board members who would like to remove anything from the consent agenda to consider as an item on the regular agenda? Nada nada enchilada. I'd also like to mention that we received over almost $170,000 in donations, and that was just last year, which is like crazy. Um, all right. Well, if there's no items to pull out, then do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Hunter. Uh, all in favor, please say,
113"I." All oppose, say, "Nay." All right. Thank you. Motion carries. All right. Let's move on to section seven, the board member committee reports. Section 7A. I am up. Oh, what was I supposed to say? Well, we just pretty much we basically just Yeah, just kidding. Uh, yes, we we discussed the baseball field, which I feel great about because it was a kind of something lost in our whole bond program. And I'm glad we found some nuggets to uh, you know, make their baseball field uh, into the 21st century because we were a little behind. Um, and we discussed LPA and we discussed uh, you know, uh, Cambridge and Woodridge and we discussed hiring part of and I think we've already done all that. So that's my report. The next report will be section 7B Alamo
114Heights School Foundation. And that is Yeah, David. So we met today, guys. They're like firing on all cylinders. It's incredibly impressive what they're doing. Um the teacher fund ended the year at a little over a million dollars in donations. The budget was 500 grand. So it's incredible what Sooge and the team did with that. U they've gotten some very big gifts um that were kind of out of the blue six figure gifts that they're very excited about. U I know that we've had good response with our small group talks to the PTO's. We got a few more to do. Uh those have been really wellreceived and generated a lot of revenue which is kind of neat too. Um they're already well ahead on Greater Heights night. They have tons of sponsors already which typically they
115don't get until later. Uh Meredith Michaelelsson is leading that effort and doing a great job already. Um and the gift which we I mean this is public the public amount of $2 million is 400,000 more than last year or 25% more. Um, that's phenomenal. That really is a testament to how hard they're working on behalf of the district. Um, and just kind of the close working relationship that we have with everybody. So, I'm just very excited for the next year, the school foundation. That's amazing. Well, and kudos to Karen for also co-chairing Greater Heist. So, it's great. I didn't mean to admit you. I had no notes. No worries. You all are invited to their end of year board celebration which is on Monday 5:30. They're trying to do a group picture at 6 pm.
116Everybody's busy, but you can be there at 6 for the check presentation. It's at um I'll have this in your update, but Brook's house. Sweetness. I was there last night. Anything else? That's it. Need a report. All right. Moving on to section eight, business recommendations. I am told by a little birdie that there is no business recommendations at this time. Fantastic. Section nine, calendar review. Let's see who that is. Is that going to be Dana? Yes, sir. You betcha. Okay. So, um Christina has the calendar review displayed for you. This will be in your weekly update this Sunday 4:00. Um is that Lauria? always a wonderful um opportunity to celebrate our seniors. We as a board have um senior exit interviews on Monday over lunch 11:30. David has volunteered to bring a attractive lunch for
117the seniors to entice them to to attend. And um that will be a tight 1-hour meeting. That afternoon is actually their senior walk at Cambridge and Woodbridge, too. And that's just kind of a fun event to go to if you um have time to stop by in the afternoon. I think that's at 2 o'clock. I'll have that in my update as well. Our last Excel graduation is on Wednesday, May 21st. Our regular graduation is Thursday, May 22nd at 8:00 p.m. at the stadium. And then we'll have our GMP meeting that will include a budget committee and a building committee on June 11th. And then our regular board meeting, new date, is Tuesday, June 17th. Any questions about any of that? Sorry. The senior exit interviews, was that a board? The board hosts seniors to come
118and interview um before they leave and you all will just get to ask them questions and have dialogue with them about their experience and about their plans. It's it's really awesome. Yeah, it's really a neat experience. Got it. How many do we have? I wasn't able to go last year. We invite 30. Last year we had 25 show up. That's great. And it it's in the boardroom. It's in the boardroom. Yes. Yeah. It's great. So, they're very honest. Um, okay. Well, we're going into section 10 superintendent communications. So, just lots of celebrations. First, all things seniors. We did have a wonderful um college day. Great representation of this the schools that our students are going to. Um, I was able to host a superintendent staff senior sendoff that was um just wonderful. And um senior
119awards was this past Monday as well. Um I do want to make sure I think I had in my notes here just a couple other senior walks on Monday. Um this upcoming Monday we're actually going to have um Bartlett Cox is providing us with a beam um from the building that students will be able to sign on Friday and Saturday and that will be um displayed in the prominent place leaving their mark on the new building. And then we just talked about senior exit interviews at 11:30 on Monday. And then if we go to the next slide again, just so many celebrations in May. Um well, since last time we met, we we hosted I mean we held um celebration for our military kids at at all of our campuses. We hosted our celebration of
120excellence at Paloma Blanca last week. That feels like a lifetime ago for those of you who were able to be there. Um retirees and honores. We recognized um Braden Kaine at the Trinity Prize reception as well. My student um group had our final meeting. We had Excel awards recognizing Evie Thompson pitch night. Um and of course, you know, we have a whole fiesta in there as well. So, lots of great things taking place. Lots of celebrations in athletics. On the next slide, Julian has lots of great pictures for us. First, um I'll share that our state tennis is competing tomorrow here in San Antonio for state. And so, the boys are in the morning and the girls are in the afternoon. and get to spend some time um there at North Side cheering them on.
121We had a great athletic signing day. You can see pictured um center bottom. And then I'm going to just share real quickly when you heard about our our track team today. You heard about um our golf state champions at our last principal director meeting. Um Coach Renovan talked about success and he used those two teams to talk about the fact that not only is it a really big deal to get to compete at the state level, right? It's not only a huge deal to to be a state championship team like we are at in golf. Um but both of those teams set incredible records at state. And so you heard today they talked about um our girls team going and winning state but winning in all divisions. They also set a state score record there
122that hadn't been beat before. and then our our state track um athletes showed up at state and all beat their personal record. And so that's a pretty neat definition of success and that's a pretty neat um snapshot of of the celebrations in our athletic department. And then finally, just looking ahead on the next slide, we have our graduation event um that will be the second year at the stadium. And um Christina, if you go to the next slide, um that was wonderful last year. We had a wonderful breeze. We're going to just put good thoughts that we're going to have that same breeze again this year. The heat wave. And then finally, there just a lot of of summer activities. Um summer is busy busy busy for us here. And so you've heard of construction
123will be starting. We'll continue working on our budget planning. We have summer school, summer at heights, credit acceleration and recovery. And then um language academy. and lots of professional development opportunities for our teacher teachers as well as um certification offerings. So busy busy summer ahead. Any questions for me on any of that? [Music] Negatory. All right. Well, great. Before we move into our next two items, if there are no objections, we'd like to take a short break before entering into executive session as for Texas Government Code section 551.001. 001 sequel noodles.